walking . is . overrated

Thanks to Philip Patston for this review!

New lifts popping up in corporate buildings (like the PriceWaterhouseCoopers building in downtown Auckland, which we visited today) have no floor or call buttons - you now enter the floor you wish to go to in a separate console and it tells you which lift to take (the cars are lettered). If you press the button with the Universal Access (wheelchair) Symbol, it embarrasses you by shouting the lift letter (hopeless if you are blind because it doesn’t say where it is). Once you’re in the lift there are no floor buttons except to open and close the doors, which made me feel strangely like I had no arms.

Obviously designed for efficiency in car management, where the system really falls down is if you pick the wrong floor. You can’t just push another floor - oh no, you have to get out, find the console, punch (yes, by now you’re punching) the floor in, find the right lift, wait for it and get back in.

It makes you wonder if the nods who design them actually use them. What do you think - do you like these nouvelle elevateurs - or, like me, are you thinking nothing was broken, so who decided to fix it?